


Green Tea, Fever Dream

by Lafeae



Series: Whump/Hurt/Comfort challenge [13]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Boss/Employee Relationship, Challenge Response, Fever, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, M/M, Power Dynamics, Pre-Slash, Semi-Sequel, Whump, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 10:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18497392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafeae/pseuds/Lafeae
Summary: Joey took on the job of being Kaiba’s personal assistant to get closer to being a professional Duel Monsters player.He wasn’t aware that he was also going to be getting closer to Kaiba as well. Especially when Kaiba comes to work running a high fever and saying...strange things to Joey...Joey decides that being a nurse, and making sure Kaiba makes it home okay, are suddenly part of his job description.Not that he cares or anything....Companion to ‘Barely Lucid, Working Hard’





	Green Tea, Fever Dream

**Author's Note:**

> A request from a tumblr user, red-eyes-Blue-eyes. The bingo square was ‘Fevers’

Seto Kaiba sneezed like he was about to explode. It wasn’t a sound Joey had heard before, a mixture of a sneeze, a cough, and some phlegmy moan proceeded by a loud crash from behind the office doors. He didn’t want to know what caused the crash; Kaiba throwing something or slamming his desk open-palmed. If Joey could avoid it, he wouldn’t interact with Kaiba at all, not if his job meant anything.

Kaiba’s prior threats suddenly felt very real. Looming and uncertain. Like Kaiba crept behind him, ready to staple the pink slip to his forehead. 

All because there was a tiny silver of a fraction of a chance that it was him,  _specifically him,_ that had gotten Kaiba sick.

“There’s no way that it could be,” Serenity tried to assure him. “I mean...you did go in sick but—,” 

“Exactly!” 

“Even still. If you did, how would he prove it?” 

Joey had to admit, his sister had a point. “I dunno. He’s smart, he’ll figure out some mumbo-jumbo bull an’ pin it on me.”

Serenity rolled her eyes and laughed. “He can’t, Joey. And he can’t fire you for getting him sick, either. Didn’t you say he said it was illegal for firing you because  you  were sick?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Okay then. Problem solved.”

“But...”Joey stopped before the rest came out and groaned. He could throw logic at this as much he wanted to, Serenity was right. He couldn’t be fired for this. He could, however, be dogged on for however long Kaiba wanted to hold onto the grudge. He was _still_ mocking  Joey for mixing up salt and sugar in the coffee, (they totally looked the same, why would the salt be next to the coffee pot?) this would be the thing. “Fine, whatever.” 

Joey grabbed his backpack and headed for the door. 

“If you don’t want to go in, though, that’s different,” Serenity said. 

“I really don’t.” 

“Then call in. It’s Saturday. Why do you go in on Saturdays anyways?” 

“Because,” Joey replied. It was more complicated than he could put into words. He’d wasted enough time rocking on his heels, debating calling in or not. “It’s too late now,” he finally said, and headed out the door before Serenity could try and talk him into calling in. She meant the best, she really did, and it made him smile.

 

—

The truth was, Saturdays were an anomaly. He wasn’t sure that he had to be in the office, but Kaiba was in. And he was...whatever...to Kaiba. He’d begun thinking he was a personal assistant of some sort, but he was pretty sure that title belonged to Roland. But he wasn’t in on Saturdays. Neither was the secretary or most of the nine to five employees. It was just him and Kaiba in the office, alone. Only a door between them. 

That’s what made this Saturday so scary. There was no buffer. No secretary, no Roland, no chauffeur. Nothing. 

It was him against the world. He wondered if that made Kaiba the world. The egotist probably thought that he was the world. Or, if not, that the world revolved around him. Which was pretty damn true by the number of times that Joey placed calls for orders on whatever the hell it was that Kaiba needed right that moment, and the person he had called was ready to piss themselves and jump through hoops at the same time, just from the name. He jumped too. Which, maybe, made Kaiba his world. 

Joey laughed the thought away as he settled at his desk. 

For work, sure, Kaiba was his world. The rest of it really depended on Kaiba’s mood which was, most of the time, God-awful. 

“Morning, Kaib’,” Joey greeted, his head down when Kaiba strode by him. 

“Hn.”

Joey nodded. If Kaiba wasn’t talking, this would be easy. He just had to make it until noon and he was free. But he didn’t even had the time to get settled. Kaiba eyed him from the door, forcing him to look up and smile reflexively.

The executive looked like a two day-old turd. A polished one in a thin cotton button up and light coloured slacks, but a turd nonetheless. His eyes were glassy, his hair wasn’t coiffed, and his nose and cheeks were rosy-red. Something told Joey that Kaiba wasn’t used to being sick; that, or he didn’t have a set expression prepared for it, at least. His jaw was set like he wanted to say something or was going to sneeze. One of the two.

“Need somethin’?” Joey asked.

“Coffee.” 

“Ya sure?”

“As long as you can figure out what sugar is,” he said. 

Usually, Joey had some smart-mouthed retort ready to the predictable quip, but not today. Kaiba’s delivery was lame and tired. No bite at all. It was a wonder that he remembered to say it at all. Joey’s mouth downturned. 

“Maybe ya need tea, instead, huh? Clear your head?” 

“Coffee.” Kaiba opened the door and glided in. 

“I’m gettin’ ya tea. Ya like lemon?” Joey asked. The office door slammed in his face. “Your zombie-ass is gettin’ honey an’ lemon...an’ ya don’t deserve it,” he muttered. He went to the elevator and sighed, wondering why he cared enough to go all the way down to the employee dining room and gather the ingredients in the first place. 

Hot water, a green tea bag, and lemon slice were precariously balanced all the way back to Kaiba’s office. He opened the door with his elbow and and nudged through, narrowly catching himself when his slacks got caught on the handle. 

The blinds were completely closed. The executive office was a makeshift dungeon, its sleek chrome and glass set-up dulled in the darkness. At the desk, Kaiba sat almost fully forward, his head supported his hand. His eyes were closed. 

“Wake up, Kaib’.”

Kaiba’s brows rose. “I am not asleep.” 

“Restin’ your eyes then, whatever.” Joey sat everything down on the desk. Kaiba hadn’t opened his eyes yet. 

“Hmph. I’m thinking.” 

“Uh-huh.” 

It was kind of pitiful, but Joey didn’t voice that. He was very aware of just how much it sucked to force yourself to get up and go to work when it your brain was on fire or you couldn’t breath. For Kaiba, it just seemed weird.

“What do you want, Wheeler?” 

“I brought tea. Some assembly required.” 

Kaiba finally straightened out and opened his eyes. Whether he was all there was debatable. “I’m confident I asked for coffee,” he said, taking the cup of hot water and looking into it. 

“Ya don’t need coffee. Ya need to go home an’ sleep.” 

“I’m fine,” Kaiba said, sipping the hot water.

“Right...”Joey nudged the tea bag towards Kaiba as he looked into the cup again, brow quirked, before taking a second sip. “You know what sick days are, dontcha?” Joey asked. 

“About as well as you do.” 

“Whatever.” 

The disconnect from Kaiba’s mind and his actions was fascinating. Joey took a few steps back to watch what was likely Kaiba mid-trance, going about a morning routine of sipping on coffee while reading through something on his computer. He looked innocent, and he had a way of holding his upper lip around the rim of the cup that was delightful.

“Sure ya don’t wanna call it a day?” Joey asked sincerely. “Ya don’t look so hot.” 

“Mm, I’m sure you would know.” 

Joey blinked and struggled to find words. Kaiba didn’t think he meant that literally? And suddenly, Joey wondered if he meant it literally. He did have a tendency to look Kaiba up and down when he knew Kaiba wasn’t looking. But that’s all it was, just looking. Well, maybe  some naughty thoughts...nothing serious. “I don’t—,” 

“Get out of my office, Wheeler. I’m sure you have something better to do.” 

If there was, Joey had all but forgotten it in the moment that he noticed Kaiba had his hand moving about like it was on the computer mouse when it wasn’t, and didn’t seem to question why nothing was getting done. He was suddenly frightened to leave Kaiba alone. 

But Kaiba’s glare was still real. And much more frightening.

“Yeah, I’ll...jus’ uh...check in later. Give me a ring if ya need somethin’,” Joey said, backing out of the door and noticing the droop in Kaiba’s eyes even before he shut it. 

—

Other than Joey’s typing, there wasn’t a single sound on the executive floor. Which, normally, would have been a good thing. Joey couldn’t count the number of times that he’d begged for peace and quiet. KaibaCorp. ran through organised chaos, carefully hidden by the hands closest to Seto Kaiba himself, along with Kaiba’s very own brand of micromanaging. The quiet din was...unsettling.

It would have made more sense to hear Kaiba coughing or sneezing behind the door. At least then, he knew Kaiba was alive. It was kind of a stretch to imagine he wasn’t alive—despite the number of times Joey had shredded very suspicious letters—but then Joey had to admit he begrudgingly cared. All for the job, he told himself. Especially as he manufactured reasons to poke into Kaiba’s office. 

Like clockwork, every half-hour, he found some minor thing that needed signed or delivered, and popped into the office. Every time, he found Kaiba asleep. Or something like it.

It was very weird, but very human. At one point, Joey sat in front of him as his cheek slipped off his palm and his head bobbed down to his chest enough to wake him up ever so briefly and replant his cheek in his hand.

Knowing that Kaiba was suffering made it hard for Joey to say it was ‘cute’. But it was. In a messed up kind of way, where Joey knew he was the only person that could take care of Kaiba. It wasn’t a job he anticipated he’d ever have, not in so many words, though he was a personal assistant. The job description was vast and wide. It was everything from transcribing e-mails to being a stand-in for the people Kaiba didn’t want to talk to. Empowering and...oddly trusting. Something he’d never imagined Kaiba would allow him do, and yet, he did every single day.

In the several minutes he spent watching Kaiba’s head bob, he decided it was part of his job description that said ‘aide Mr. Kaiba in whatever tasks not already listed’ included being a nurse.

Sighing, he stood and walked around the desk, pressing the back of his hand beneath Kaiba’s bangs. They were soft, softer than Joey anticipated. But he set that detail aside for later. Kaiba radiated heat; Joey didn’t even have to touch his skin to know that he shouldn’t have dragged himself to work. 

Joey tapped his shoulder. “Kaib’?”

“Mmm...” 

“Kaib’, wake up.” 

“Not asleep.”

“Stop thinkin’, then. Whatever. I’m...”He steeled his nerves. “I’m takin’ ya home. You’re too damn sick to be here.”

Kaiba’s arms braced the desk and he leaned forward. “You’re taking me home?” He asked, dreamy.

“Yeah.” 

A little grin drew onto Kaiba’s face, and he looked at Joey from the corner of his eye. “You’re really desperate, aren’t you?” 

“I’m worried about ya.” 

“That’s rich.” 

“It’s fuc—,” Joey said, biting his tongue. He was still at work, no cussing. “It’s true.” 

“Clearly. You’re saving your mouth for later,” Kaiba said. He eased himself up and held onto the desk to walk around it. Joey shut the laptop, packing it away, and grabbed Kaiba’s phone before chasing after the wobbling CEO. The phone was pressed in Kaiba’s hand. 

“Alright, c’mon. We’ll take my car, a’right?” Joey said. He held the office door open, and tried not to laugh as Kaiba fought to put his phone in his pocket and walk at the same time. It wasn’t funny. It was, but it wasn’t. 

“Why would I want to ride in your car?” 

“‘Cause I doubt ya want me drivin’ that fancy...thing ya got.”

“Bugatti.” 

“ Yeah, that.” Joey jammed the call button, and he reached back to hold onto Kaiba’s arm as he swayed. “Can’t handle a stick. Never could.” 

Derisively, Kaiba snickered. 

“What’s so funny?” Joey asked. 

“Can’t handle a stick,” Kaiba replied.

Joey rolled his eyes, but blush was creeping up his neck. “Nope. Prolly can’t be taught, neither,” he said as they entered the elevator. He was already regretting saying anything at all. Whatever he said was going to be used against him. There was no two-ways about it. He decided he could take it, he’d taken the worst of Kaiba’s sass, but this was a different facet. The kind that only a high fever and sleep deprivation could bring.

“That’s a shame.” 

“Yeah?” 

Kaiba nodded. His hands slid into his pockets, and he swayed into Joey as the elevator shuddered.

“Woah there. Ya a’right?” Joey wrapped his arm around Kaiba’s shoulders. A hand settled on the small of Joey’s back, and he walked them out of the elevator when the doors slid open to the parking garage. “C’mon, ya got this Kaib’. It sucks to be sick, I know. I’m surprised ya ain’t been to a doctor yet.” 

“I’m fine.” 

“Says you.” 

“Its just a cold,” Kaiba assured. His hand slipped down Joey’s back as they walked through the garage. “They go away on their own.” 

“Yeah, with medicine an’ rest. Which I bet you’ve had none of.”

“Sleep is for the weak.” 

“An’ you ain’t weak. Yeah, yeah. I get ya, but medicine ain’t bad. You got a helluva fever going on here. It prolly’s more than jus’ a cold.” 

Kaiba stalled. He pressed tighter into Joey and fought for footing while his hand sunk a little lower, resting on the small of Joey’s back. 

“Ya know, ya don’t gotta put yourself through this.” 

“I do.” 

“Ya don’t. Seriously. Let me take ya t’ a doc and then home,” Joey said. His car sat not too far in the distance. It was a little better than a beater thanks to the KC checks, but probably not something Kaiba was used to riding in. It probably needed an extra 0 or two for that. “I’m sure I’ve got the contact for your personal doc somewhere. I’ll call him up, let him know we’re on the way.” 

“He makes house calls.”

“Then I’ll make him meet us.” 

Kaiba hummed, neither agreeing or disagreeing. Which was enough of yes for Joey. He’d come to interpret those noises as something like a yes, and he was rarely wrong.

Slowly, he eased Kaiba to his car and dug his keys out of his pocket to unlock it. As he did, Kaiba’s hand slipped down and settled on his butt, squeezing just enough to make Joey jump. 

“Kaib’!” 

“What?” 

“You...your uh...” He looked Kaiba in the eye. If there was any malicious intent, he couldn’t see it. Hazy indifference was in Kaiba’s face. He was almost disappointed, so said the slow creep of blush on his cheeks. “You...ya know that...”

“So articulate.” 

Joey’s lips pinched. “Your hand is on my butt.”

It popped off, and Kaiba looked at his hand, back and front, before smirking. “Don’t go getting any ideas.” 

“I ain’t doin’ nothin’. Get in the car,” he said, unlocking the passenger side door. “My hands aren’t the ones wanderin’ everywhere.”

Kaiba slipped into the car and closed the door. Before Joey got into the driver’s seat, his eyes were closed, and he snorted lightly. 

While searching through the numerous contacts for Kaiba’s private physician, Joey simmered down. His heart was beating too fast for this nonsense. He’d be lying if he was offended. He knew, sometimes, he wondered about the kind of romantic Kaiba was. Was he the sort of person who beat around the bush and flirted too long, or did he come right out and drop flowers and chocolates on someone’s desk? 

Why did it have to be a desk? It wasn’t like the corporate building was the only place to meet people. But it may have been Kaiba’s most likely spot. Especially since he’d cleaned up plenty of ‘love declarations’ that other employees had left at Kaiba’s door in the morning. 

He just knew that Kaiba wasn’t lecherous. Witty, sure. He was full of double entendres, but that was just his own odd passion. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d talked that way to Yami or Yugi.

But he hadn’t touched them. He was almost touch-averse, a germaphobic, borderline-OCD and yet he had grabbed Joey’s ass. While feverish and exhausted. 

God, the argument made his head hurt. There were too many times he’d wondered about Kaiba’s romantic life, his sexuality, his interests and likes and whatever sort of lover he would be, that he could deny disliking being touched. However unintentional. If it was. If he pretended that it was, just to get under Joey’s skin. 

Once he got off the phone with the doctor, Joey stopped thinking about it. This was his boss. The workaholic, the egotist, the megalomaniac with enough power and wealth to back up his words and actions. He wasn’t desirable.

Joey put that on repeat as he drove towards the Kaiba mansion. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Kaiba slip to the side and press his cheek against the window. He was in complete slack, hands on his knees and mouth hanging open. He was ragged, and tired, earnestly in need of break that he was unwilling to give himself. 

“Sounds familiar...”Joey muttered. 

Kaiba stirred. “Hm?”

“Nothin’.”

“Don’t lie.” 

“It’s really nothin’. I’m jus’ thinkin’ out loud.”

Kaiba pulled himself upright and crossed his legs. “What about?”

“I dunno. Why ya hired me, I guess,” Joey replied. “I was thinkin’ about how me an’ you are both a little stubborn about work. How ya couldn’t get me t’ get home an’ I had argue with you. It’s kinda the same.”

“Tch. Hardly.” 

Joey grumbled. “I don’t mean me an’ you are the same exactly. But I keep wonderin’ why you keep me around, okay? There’s gotta be a reason, an’ it ain’t because I’ve got all this stuff down. I feel like I’m still in trainin’, learnin’ stuff everyone figured out ages ago...like that I could copy stuff straight to my e-mail or...that the reason I got this sticker in my window is ‘cause I can actually park right next to the elevator.” 

“Hmph.” 

“So spill. What’s the reason?” 

Kaiba sighed. He leaned into the window. “If you’re so dense, I don’t see how telling you will do me a bit of good. It’s a waste of time.”

“We still got like ten minutes ‘til we get to your place. We got the time.” 

“Then it’s a waste of energy,” he murmured, half-asleep. 

“Tell me anyways.”

Kaiba’s eyes half-lidded. He watched himself in the side-view mirror. “I’ve told you before. It’s because I wanted you.”

“Well, yeah. That’s why ya hired me, but...” 

“Does it need to be deeper than that, Joseph?” 

Joey bit the inside of his cheek. Kaiba’s eyes were closing again, and a small cough rattled his thin frame. At a red light, he reached over and touched Kaiba’s chapped cheek. He was so hot, but shivered beneath the touch. Quickly, he tore his blazer off and laid it over Kaiba as the light turned green, launching forward when the car behind him honked. 

Kaiba stirred enough to pull the blazer closer around himself. 

Joey smiled. 

—

The mansion peeked over the long drive like a little beacon, shiny and proud. Joey hadn’t been there for years, and even then he’d never seen the inside. But with Kaiba dozing on his window and having the coordination of a toddler, he knew he’d be helping him at least into the hands of one of the house staff.

He knocked on the window to stir Kaiba, only opening the door once he’d moved. Instinctually, Kaiba threw his legs out of the car, though he stuttered once he held onto the frame. 

“C’mon, I got ya.” 

Joey bent down and wrapped his arms around Kaiba’s torso, continually amazed that he was allowed to touch the man. He was equally amazed when Kaiba hugged him back just as tight. He suppressed a laugh. 

“Ya gotta walk. I don’t think I can carry ya.” 

“You could.”

“Well, yeah, you’re a twig. But it’d be weird,” he said, ignoring the fact that he almost did reach around and pick Kaiba up fully. It was only three stairs into the mansion.

No one was waiting at the door, though there were footsteps somewhere deep in the house. He supposed it was impractical for the house staff to be waiting by the door all the time. “Don’t look like the doc’s in yet.” 

“Mm.” 

“Which way to the livin’ room?” 

“Right. Bedroom’s upstairs to the left, however.”

“Ya wanna go t’ the bedroom?” Joey asked. He began imagining what the bedroom looked like, given the how normal looking the foyer seemed to be. There was a large staircase to the right, and the floor was marble, but it didn’t have the over indulgent Blue Eyes statue he imagined, nor was it painted in shades of blue. Instead, it was a soft, off-green colour that was probably considered ‘Earthy’ or whatever they said on those home improvement shows. The bedroom, surely, had to have those details instead. 

“I should. I need a shower.” 

“I can’t help ya with that.” 

Kaiba smiled wryly. “I didn’t ask you to.” 

“Yeah, but I’m sure you’d find a way to twist my words.” 

Kaiba said nothing, and he stumbled up the last few stairs, gripping tight to the banister to balance himself before striding forward. He clinched the blazer around his shoulders.

Joey was right behind him the entire way, and he stood on his tip-toes to catch a glimpse of the bedroom when Kaiba opened the door. The bed had a navy comforter over it, but the floor was wood, covered in a long, Oriental runner in shades of sapphire and gold. The furniture was white. 

Kaiba stopped him when he tried to enter. “What are you doing?” 

“I...dunno,” Joey shrugged. “Helpin’. I’ve gone this far, ya know?” 

“Helping,” Kaiba repeated. 

“Yeah.” 

“With what, exactly?” 

Joey couldn’t have stopped the blush if he wanted to. “I uh...didn’t think that far ahead I...” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Never mind, forget about it. I’m gonna head out, a’right? Doc should be here any minute an’ I told Serenity that we’d go to the movies.”

He turned and left. Halfway down the hall, he heard: “Jospeh?” 

“...what?” 

“You could be of use one more time, before you go.”

Joey’s breath hitched. He was running through so many different requests in his head, most of which seemed to involved a variable of the shower plus a lack of clothes. Both of which he did and didn’t want to know or see. Like a Schroedinger’s cat, but a naked Kaiba instead. No. This was his boss.

“What’s up?” 

“That tea you made earlier....” 

Joey squeezed his eyes closed. This wasn’t going to end well. “...yeah?”

“Make another before you go.” 

The urge to laugh was resisted. He wondered what exactly he was going to do. Make actual green tea, or just give him another cup of hot water? 

Curtly, he nodded. “Yeah. Sure.” 

Joey decided he was too far into this to say otherwise. It was his job after all; the consequences often worked themselves out. So he went downstairs, searched for the kitchen for a few minutes, searched the cabinets several more for the mug, the tea bag, and only gave up when he couldn’t find a lemon. There was too much kitchen for that. 

After, he brought the disassembled tea upstairs, figuring it was best. Keep the situation the same.

Kaiba’s door was ajar, and he slipped in, still admiring the wide bedroom and all the little knickknacks carefully placed on shelves and dresser tops. It was modern, but homey, he supposed. Especially with Kaiba’s clothes strewn over the floor. Carefully, he tip-toed up to the bed, afraid of what state he might find Kaiba laying in after the day’s...interesting events.

He rested on his side, head buried in his arms. He was fresh out of a shower, hair wet and skin pinkish. He’d put on sleep clothes, but Joey couldn’t entirely tell what, because his blazer was the used as a blanket instead of the comforter. 

Joey’s head buzzed, and he set the cup and tea bag down before he dropped it. 

Maybe he’d stay with Kaiba. Watch him sleep, at least until the doctor got there. It was the least he could do anyways, job or no job. Somehow, he figured Kaiba had wanted him to do that—and he had no idea why. 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was more than it should have been XD even if my humour is terrible. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed. Tell me what you think!


End file.
